Logan Paul will challenge Roman Reigns for the undisputed WWE universal title at Crown Jewel.
WWE returns to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Saturday for its Crown Jewel pay-per-view, headlined by social media star Logan Paul challenging Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship.
That showdown headlines a packed card containing title implications and hard-hitting grudge matches between some of the biggest Superstars on the roster.
Find out the current match card and who you can expect to leave each bout victorious with this preview of the PPV.
Bianca Belair successfully retained her Raw Women's Championship in a ladder match against Bayley at Extreme Rules that was accompanied by some questionable creative that may have undermined the momentum Damage CTRL had entering that show.
Fortunately, WWE has the opportunity to right that wrong on Saturday when The Role Model challenges the titleholder for a second time in a Last Woman Standing match.
That particular match type allows for Belair to lose her title while being protected from a booking standpoint, the likely reason Triple H and his creative team has chosen it in the first place.
Expect chicanery from the heel, with potential interference from Dakota Kai and Iyo Sky factoring into the finish. And don't be surprised to see Nikki Cross make an appearance following her explosive return to Raw last Monday night.
Regardless of who interjects themselves into the match, expect Bayley to win the gold that has eluded her for the last two years and for Damage CTRL's stranglehold over the women's division in WWE to become even tighter.
The Brawling Brutes have been in chase of the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships since September, and they will have the opportunity to deny history and end The Usos' run with the titles on Saturday.
Jimmy and Jey (462 days) are inching closer to The New Day's record of 483 days as champions and will likely break that record if they can make it past Butch and Ridge Holland in Riyadh.
Expect that to happen.
The Bloodline are still the most over faction in wrestling, and considering Jey's high-profile feud with "Honorary Uce" Sami Zayn, the twins figure to remain key elements of the WWE product for the foreseeable future.
The match will be great, and Butch and Holland will continue to look like the surest bet to take the titles off The Usos, but their time is not quite yet.
Braun Strowman and Omos will square off in the battle of big men in Saudi Arabia, and anyone looking for a technical masterpiece probably isn't familiar with either man's work or has been horribly misguided toward this particular matchup.
This will be a pure spectacle, a battle between big men that more closely resembles the 1980s matches between Andre the Giant and Big John Studd rather than anything fans would be clamoring for from today's pro wrestling landscape. But that's not a bad thing.
Changing things up, providing every member of the audience with something they can sink their teeth into, is smart booking. It does not exhaust the audience or allow them to become worn out by constant athletic displays that begin to look the same over time.
Is the match going to be particularly pretty? No. Good, even? Probably not, but the fans in Riyadh will eat it up, as will kids and old-school fans who appreciate those spectacle showdowns that brought larger-than-life Superstars together.
Strowman definitely wins here, though, if only because there is more potential in him as a main event attraction than the relatively green Omos at this point.
Karrion Kross and Scarlett snatched victory from the jaws of defeat at Extreme Rules when the latter maced Drew McIntyre and ensured her man left Philadephia with a victory in a strap match.
At Crown Jewel, she will not be able to adversely affect the outcome, at least theoretically speaking, thanks to a steel cage that will confine the combatants.
This is one of the more interesting contests on the card from a booking perspective.
Kross can hardly afford a loss at this point. He has only wrestled three matches since his WWE return in August, with two of them being relative squashes and the other being the victory over the former WWE champion at Extreme Rules.
McIntyre, though, is a top-level babyface who needs his own protection creatively.
He lost to Roman Reigns at Clash at the Castle in a match many thought should have spelled the end of The Tribal Chief's oppressive run as dual champion. Then he lost to Kross and has seen his momentum stunted ever so slightly.
Beating the Scot risks damage to a tried and true main event attraction at a time when WWE is still trying to develop them under the Triple H regime.
It is a toss-up, especially as the potential for McIntyre to win and end the feud comes into play.
Still, Triple H loves Kross and sees him as a pet project of sorts. The former NXT champion has a presence, a great look and a fantastic entrance. He also has Scarlett, who may end up the bigger star of the two.
Expect her to find a way to get involved and cost McIntyre yet again, theoretically protecting his credibility while awarding Kross another high-profile victory.
The return of Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows to WWE and their partnership with AJ Styles has not only breathed new life into The Phenomenal One, but it has also ignited a rivalry with the predominant faction on Monday nights, The Judgment Day.
Finn Bálor, Damian Priest and Rhea Ripley had begun to find their way as a group under Triple H's creative regime but it was Dominik Mysterio's heel turn and surprisingly great villainy that has helped them leap off the screen as a great heel stable.
It is Mysterio's development as an on-screen performer and the red-hot heat that accompanies him that makes the outcome of this six-man tag team match that much more intriguing.
Does WWE risk cooling off The Judgment Day, particularly Mysterio, to put over The O.C. in their first match back as a trio? Absolutely.
Styles, Gallows and Anderson will win if for no other reason than the tease of an incoming woman to help negate the presence of Ripley at ringside. The surprise of that return (?) and a desire to firmly establish The O.C. as a force on Monday nights will spell defeat for the heels.
How Balor and Co. rebound from the loss will be key in them overcoming this bump in the road.
Prediction: The O.C. too-sweets their way to victory
Last January at the Royal Rumble, he had his WWE Championship run ended by Bobby Lashley, thanks in large part to a shocking betrayal at the hands of Paul Heyman.
While Heyman got his comeuppance at SummerSlam, Lashley did not. Their next planned showdown was at Elimination Chamber but an early injury suffered by The All Mighty robbed fans of another showdown between him and Lesnar...until now.
Lesnar returned to WWE on the October 10 episode of Raw and immediately unleashed fury on the then-United States champion, ultimately costing him that title and reigniting a rivalry that was a dream feud for many some nine months earlier.
Lashley got a measure of revenge by driving The Beast Incarnate through a commentary table, but all of that is dressing for a match that promises to be a heavy-hitting showdown between two of the most physically and athletically gifted heavyweights in wrestling history.
But this is a showdown in which Lesnar will get his win back.
The future Hall of Famer spent most of 2022 doing jobs and putting others over. He wins here and evens the score with Lashley, setting the stage for a potential third battle should Triple H and Co. want to take the story in that direction.
Prediction: Lesnar downs Lashley for his first PPV win since Elimination Chamber
That is the question that has been at the heart of the feud between Roman Reigns and Logan Paul. Much has been made of the fact that the match is only the YouTuber's third in WWE and he has no shot at dethroning a guy who has reigned for over two years.
But...what if he does?
No one really expects Paul to win, and such a creative decision would be met with a level of backlash Triple H and Co. have thus far been spared. It would be a business decision that historians would equate to David Arquette winning the WCW world title, despite Paul delivering performances that have highlighted his passion and athleticism.
Still, the idea of a mainstream celebrity being the guy to dethrone a champion who has enjoyed an unprecedented run of utter dominance is hardly appealing to the fanbase.
Reigns will win, retaining his title and continuing his run as the undeniable face of WWE.
But Paul will not lose. He may have his shoulders pinned to the mat, but if history is any indication, he will show up and show out in a performance that wins over the harshest of critics and creates a greater acceptance of his returns to the ring in the future.
He has put in the work, training for the match with Shawn Michaels, and should exceed even the loftiest expectations, just as he did against The Miz at SummerSlam.
